It might if it's a pint of Twisted Pine Brewing Company's new Roots Revival Carrot IPA, an American-style India Pale Ale brewed using all Colorado-sourced ingredients -- including several hundred pounds of locally grown organic carrots.

Twisted Pine dedicates this homegrown specialty beer to the Boulder Farmers' Market in honor of its 25th anniversary. It's also the inaugural release in the brewery's Farm to Foam series, an idea that Twisted Pine President Bob Baile says is inspired by the farm-to-table ethic exemplified by many local restaurants. The brewery plans to continue the series with beers brewed with locally grown grains and hops, as well as fruits, roots, seeds and vegetables.

"We're limited only by our imagination," says Baile.

Roots Revival Carrot IPA can technically be called a field beer, and it's certainly unique. Logistics manager Justin Tilotta introduced the idea to the Twisted Pine team and brewer Henry Jager experimented with two different pilot brews -- one with carrots in the mash and one with carrots in the boil. The mash-in technique was the clear winner, and brewers then scaled up the recipe to make a 10-barrel batch that's currently available on draft in the Twisted Pine Ale House and in wax-dipped 750ml bottles.

This isn't carrot juice, however. The effect is much more subtle.

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The beer pours a cloudy, orange-tinged straw color with a sweet aroma reminiscent of freshly peeled carrots and lemon. These lighter flavors are present in the taste, as well, and are nicely balanced against the base beer's assertive hop character. Rather than dominate, the carrots add complexity to an overall crisp and refreshing beer that pairs well with the season.

"Rather than just have a one-dimensional beer... we shot for something that has a multitude of flavors to it," says Baile. "It's about both subtlety and complexity."

Finding the ingredients, however, presented a unique challenge.

Says Tilotta: "Colorado-grown grain and hops weren't nearly as difficult to source as the 300 pounds of local carrots we had to dig up in late March!"

Left Hand Smokejumper

Smoked beers are all about balance. Go too light on the smoke flavor and you risk muddling the mix; too much and it's like drinking a campfire.

The smoke flavor is assertive without overwhelming, and works well with the roasty sweetness of the porter. There's also an underlying savory, bacon-like character that may not be for everyone, but that I found to be quite appealing. It's a fairly big beer at 8.8 percent ABV, which helps support the beer's complex flavor profile.

When Left Hand last released Smokejumper in 2008, it won a gold medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival in the smoked-beer category.

Smokejumper is also the official beer of the National Smokejumper Association, and is brewed in tribute to the iron-willed firefighters who specialize in parachuting into the wilderness to fight wildfires. Left Hand has held a series of fundraising events that feature special cask editions of the beer, as well as offered signed bottles for auction.

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